The Curriculum & Our Policies

We concentrate on the 3 main areas initially Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. We develop these areas to foster children’s confidence and resilience while at the same time introducing the 4 specific areas of  Literacy, Maths, Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

 

At Swanley Kindergarten Pre-School we take a holistic view with regards to learning. With this in mind we aim for children to become life-long learners right from the start by helping them develop a “have a go” attitude and that “failure” is part of the learning process. To help with this belief we incorporate the Characteristics of Effective Learning into our planning and everyday activities. Characteristics of Effective Learning encourage children to find out and explore, play with familiar things, be willing to have a go, become involved and concentrate, keep trying despite set-backs, take enjoyment out of their achievements, have their own ideas, make links and choose their own way of doing things. We support this further by talking to the children about what they are doing and are firm advocates of using phrases such as “I wonder what would happen if …..?”, “What else do you think it might need…..?”, “How could we make it better….?” to name but a few. Phrases such as these help the thought process and promote two way conversations.

 

Maths and Literacy are also an integral part of our day with specific time set aside for children of similar ages and stages of development learning to count (before recognising numbers) as well as beginning to learn their letter sounds using "Write Dance" and "Read, Write, Ink" from the very start of their journey with us.

 

Once children reach the age of 4 they are able to attend our Rising 5’s session with the focus on becoming school ready. Although we still use the curriculum as a whole during this time there is greater focus on Maths and Literacy, with children being encouraged to learn to write their names whilst working on a 1:1 basis with staff for short periods of time to develop their Maths and Literacy. We also aim to develop children’s confidence through encouraging them to get changed for PE sessions independently and take part in group activities.

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To look at what we do on a daily basis please see our facebook page using the link on the home screen

Please read our Behaviour Policy here.

Please read our Child Safeguarding Policy here

Please read our Supporting Children with Special Needs Policy here. You can also find out the answer to some frequently asked questions on Special Needs here.

Please read about Promoting Positive Behaviour here.

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